The King's Folly

by Robin Simmons

  “Because, Rebekka, I have found evidence that leads me to believe the first king and dukes formed an allegiance, or equal alliance, to begin the kingdom more than a thousand years ago.”

  Rebekka eyed him carefully, “That is what the legends say, and they also say there were inventions, weapons and wisdom far more advanced than anything we have now.”

  “That also is true,” Raven answered. “The ancients were more advanced and did things we cannot do today.”

  “How do you know these things, Prince Raven?”

  “I cannot tell you now, but I will someday. By the way, are there any secret passages in the Prescott castle?”

  “Not that I know of,” Rebekka said thoughtfully, and Raven could tell she was now thinking of the architecture and construction of her castle, “but I will have to check it out when I get home.”

  “Tonight,” Raven said, “after dinner we will have to go to the stables and check out that door.”

  They had arrived at the location for the picnic and dismounting, they staked their horses to let them graze. The lunch the kitchen staff had prepared under Lorriel’s direction was lacking nothing for taste as well as quantity: roast chicken with special seasonings, sour bread rolls, butter mixed with garlic and onion to put on the bread, fresh vegetables from the royal garden, a flagon of fresh berry juice mixed with an apple cider, and some of the castle’s best smoked cheese.

  Raven lay back and looked at Rebekka. She was very beautiful, eating and soaking in the sun.

  Then she looked at him, “You may think me forward, Prince Raven, but I have never had a better lunch in all my life, nor better company.” After saying this she turned away and blushed.

  “Lady Rebekka, I must assure you I feel the same way myself, and above all else I enjoy the conversation I have with you. It is insightful and refreshing to have a woman who thinks with her head, then speaks what is on her mind without monopolizing the conversation. You have a true gift.”

  Now Rebekka really blushed to receive such praise from the prince.

  “I feel at times I say too much,” she said.

  “Your character of speech is what I like most about you. Shall we take a walk to settle our lunch?”

  Rebekka nodded and Raven held his hand out to her to help her up. They started off, away from the lake and up a knoll that was just tall enough not to expose what lay over the top. The grass was still in the growing of spring to early summer and had not reached its maturity yet, so there were no stickers to make the walk uncomfortable. As they topped the rise, they could see for a ways over the grassy plane and down into a small gully. In the gully were some ripe berry bushes, the kind that ripened earlier than the other berries of the kingdom. They started down and reached the first bush, plucking the berries and enjoying their flavor when something large began to move beyond the other bushes. It stood up and Raven recognized it as a huge bull Tor. He even knew this Tor bull from the patch of white that surrounded the sharp horn between his eyes and the scar on his left flank from fighting other Tor. This particular bull had been slated for the barbecue pits but had eluded the hunting parties so far. The reason he was marked for death was that this particular Tor was very mean and had attacked several subjects of the kingdom, even one while on horseback, which was rare. Usually Tor were no more dangerous than normal cattle, but even bull cattle could turn on you, and then stomp and gore you. The problem with a rogue Tor, was they were larger than cattle and had three horns.

  “Just back away up the hill,” Raven whispered in Rebekka’s ear. “Head back for the horses.” Rebekka and Raven were slowly backing up the knoll when the Tor raised its head and its nostrils flared open. It looked in their direction and pawed the ground a couple of times.

  Oh, no, Raven thought, this does not look good. At that moment, the Tor charged at them up the hill.

  They were almost at the top of the knoll so Raven shouted to Rebekka, “Run, run back to the horses!” Rebekka needed no encouragement in that department for she had already taken flight over the hill.

  Raven turned back toward the charging Tor. The bull was coming full stride now. He wished more than anything that he had the ancient family sword right now, but it was back hidden in the passage.

  The words of Master Fields came to Raven in an instant: “Do not flee an attack or you will get it in the back. Face your enemy and wait for his weakness to expose itself.”

  I do not think Master Fields meant a charging Tor though, and Raven was tempted to run.

  But he held his ground for the Tor would catch him running just as easily and that would put Rebekka in jeopardy. So Raven watched the approaching Tor bearing down on him. He had a little advantage being up hill, but not much. As the Tor neared, it put its head down in order to bring its horns in position to gore. At that moment, Raven realized it could not see well with its head down. He side stepped and punched the Tor in the eye as it went by. The Tor whirled and came on again. Raven tried to stay on the side of the punched eye which was now watering. Again he side stepped and this time punched the Tor hard on the nose. The Tor did not wheel around so fast this time but stopped and shook its head back and forth, eyeing Raven and trying to decide if a charge was worth another whack on the nose. It snorted, lifted its head and bellowed. Then it trotted off down the hill.

  Raven was grateful the Tor was leaving and realized the attack was only a half-hearted effort on the beast’s part. He also realized his heart was beating quite rapidly. When he came over the knoll, he could see Rebekka was racing up the hill on a horse. But she slowed to a trot when she saw that Raven was all right. She stopped short of him, dismounted and threw her arms around Raven.

  “I thought you were being killed when I heard it bellow. I was so scared for you.” Then she paused, “How did you get rid of him?”

  “I punched him in the eye and nose,” Raven said laughing.

  “You what?” she said incredulously.

  “I punched him and it worked. He decided he did not want any more boxing lessons.”

  Rebekka looked at Raven then said, “Not nearly well enough. It looks like he caught your side.”

  Raven looked down and saw a tear in his shirt with a little blood at the tear. He had not realized he had been gored at all, but it was not bad.

  “Let us go back to the castle and I will look at that,” Rebekka said. Then she added, “You stayed there to give me time to get away, did you not?”

  Raven did not answer her question but instead said, “I swear by my ancestors that this Tor shall be food for the summer feast. I will hunt him down myself!”

  With that he gathered up the picnic things and mounted his horse, turning it toward the castle. Rebekka knew Raven had stayed behind to bait the bull to ensure her safety. She smiled to herself. He was turning out to be quite the brave knight to a damsel in distress.

  While Raven and Rebekka were having their picnic, Lorriel had gone to her mother’s room to look through her jewelry. She missed her mother so much. She had always felt at peace, felt so safe when her mother was around. Her mother had brought a sense of balance to their family. Since her death everything, seemed out of balance somehow. But why, she did not know. If it had not been for her meeting Andrew Crestlaw, she would still feel lost and empty. Andrew had filled up the emptiness and always made her feel safe when he was near.

  Maybe the fear she possessed was because of the way her mother died, a death that frightened half the kingdom. She had died of a plague long thought gone except for legends. A plague characterized by an unquenchable thirst with no fever, then came terrible bruising followed by vomiting then bleeding from the mouth and ears and finally death. It was a short illness that according to record was to last only three days. No one was allowed to see her mother after she started bruising, for she was quarantined. Only the doctor was let into the tower where they had put her. Lorriel did not see her before she died or afterwards. Even the funeral was strange. On the second day, ea
rly in the morning, there was a body wrapped in cloth placed on a pyre and set afire. No one knew who had done it, but a quick check showed her mother was missing from the tower. Most suspected the doctor but he denied it, although he had stated in the presence of them all that a quick burning of the body was needed to halt the plague. Since everyone knew the doctor could not kill anyone, they assumed the queen had died sooner than was expected. With the doctor finding out, he had immediately disposed of the body. To the relief of the kingdom, no one else came down with the disease, but that was no consolation to Lorriel. Her mother’s death had always seemed so unreal, as though it had not happened. After the fire finished consuming the body, they took her ashes and buried them in the king’s cemetery outside the castle.

  Coming to her mother’s room and seeing the emptiness and dust that had collected there helped to finalize her death more in Lorriel’s eyes. She knew now her mother would never be here again. She cried a little while, then began to sort through the jewelry and belongings to find something to wear. A blue pearl necklace that had been imported from some kingdom to the south was her choice. She began to look for earrings to match when she came across a wooden box inlaid with gold, and when she opened it she found a ring with a note under it which read:

  “To Raven, my beloved son, this ring was our forefather’s and bears the family crest. The crest is old, not the one your father now wears as the seal of the kingdom. When it was replaced by the more modern crest we do not know. Perhaps it was because it was not made of gold and precious stones, but some other mixture of metals that do not wear with age. Edward will get your father’s ring bearing the modern crest when he becomes king. I want you to have this, and when you are old enough so it will fit, I will present this box to you. I love you dearly, Raven. There is something special about you, that is why I want you to have this ring. Remember your family heritage and wear this crest well with honor!”

  Love, Your mother, Joanna.

  Lorriel looked at the ring. It wasn’t bright and shiny but looked new. The craftsmanship was incredible. She noticed the difference, too, from their present family crest. She placed it back in the box under the letter her mother had written, closed the lid and found the blue pearl earrings she had been searching for. With one last look around the room, she left with the pearls and the box.

  She had just come down to the main hall when Raven and Rebekka entered. Rebekka took one look at Lorriel and seeing the tear stained eyes, ran to her and threw her arms around her. She too started crying softly, saying that she was sorry she had suggested that Lorriel go to her mother’s room. Then Lorriel began crying, again.

  Great, Raven thought, I am the one with the gored side and here they are crying on each other’s shoulders. If Raven had known what was going on, he would have been more sympathetic, but he had no idea. As if they were reading Raven’s mind, they both turned to look at him while Lorriel whispered to Rebekka that everything was fine, and she was glad she had gone.

  Lorriel stepped toward Raven, holding the box out to him. “This is for you from mother,” was all she could say, handing him the box. Now Raven felt ashamed when he realized where Lorriel had been, for his wound was not bad at all. He opened the box and saw the ring and the note. Slipping the note from beneath the ring, he read it with tears in his eyes. Then he took the ring out and placed it on his finger. It fit fairly well, more loose than tight but not loose enough to come off. He placed the note back inside the box closing the lid and looked at Lorriel. There were tears anew in her eyes and now Raven went over and hugged Lorriel.

  “Thank you, thank you so much, Lorriel, for finding this for me. This ring is more special than you realize.” Raven had recognized the special metal the ring was made of, the same as the armor he had seen. When they parted Lorriel noticed blood on her hand from hugging Raven.

  “Raven, you are hurt. What happened?”

  “Oh, nothing,” Raven replied, “just a crazy Tor got a piece of me, but not before I taught him a few boxing lessons.”

  “Yes,” replied Rebekka, swooning a little and madly blinking her eyes giving her a silly look, “The prince risked his life to save me from a mad Tor.”

  Lorriel smiled and added, “It seems our men have been saving us quite regularly lately.” That made them all laugh, which put them in a better mood.

  “Come on,” Rebekka said more seriously, “we need to get that wound dressed.”

  So they went over to a table and sat down while Lorriel got some salve and bandages. Rebekka looked at the ring so Raven opened the box and let her read the letter.

  When she finished, she looked at the ring again and shook her head, “It looks new. Is your mother sure it is that old?”

  “It is very old,” Raven said. “In fact, it dates back to the first king and dukes of Glenfair.”

  “How do you know?” Rebekka asked.

  “Because of the metal in the ring; I have seen metal like it before, and it was created by the ancients.” Raven said no more as Lorriel came with bandages and applied them to his wound, which, when cleaned, was not very bad.

  It was time for supper then so Raven put on a new shirt and sat down with the family for dinner. Again the conversation was pleasant with Mollen taking delight in speaking to Rebekka. If Raven did not know better, he would say his father was interested in Rebekka as a candidate for his queen. Raven smiled at that for he knew his father was not interested in anyone after his mother’s death. The king had made it quite clear to the whole kingdom of his intentions to remain single for his remaining days. Oh how his father loved his mother, Raven remembered. He felt the ring on his hand and silently thought, Thank you, mother, for this gift. I wish you were here with us tonight.

  Dinner ended and Raven reminded Rebekka of their previous decision to meet in the stables, so they strolled out in the courtyard and turned to where the stables were. Entering, they saw that no one was there, only the horses. Raven took an oil lantern off of the wall and lit it so they would have light. Making their way to the last stall on the north, he was glad to see it was empty and no horse had been bedded there. He asked Rebekka to hold the lamp while he again felt the sides of the barely visible door until he felt the unmistakable stone catches, which he pushed in. This door opened differently than the ones in the castle, which rotated in a half circle. This swung completely to one side, making more room for a horse to go through. When he looked back at Rebekka, she just stood there with her mouth open.

  “I did not even hear the door open” she said, astonished.

  Raven motioned for her to enter with the light so they could see. The passage was dark but short, as it only went through the wall. Inside were the levers to close the door they had just opened, and to open the door that led to the outside wall. Raven pulled it and the outside door swung out into the open air on the north side of the castle. This time, though, Raven heard a ticking rhythm. As he and Rebekka watched, the door began to close of its own accord.

  “,”How convenient Raven thought, “you could close the first door manually, but the outside closed on its own so a rider would not have to bother once he bolted through the opening and the passage was tall enough for a person to ride right through. This will come in handy someday.”

  They both waited for the door to close and Raven motioned for them to move back into the stable. Once back inside the stall, he closed the door and they could never tell that any portion of the wall had ever moved.

  Rebekka leaned over to Raven and spoke: “There must be a way out of the main castle that no one could see to make this door effective.”

  Raven nodded. “There must be,” was all he said, thinking again how quick witted Rebekka was. “Now we must be getting back before we are missed and someone comes looking for us.”

  Rebekka nodded and they went back to the main dining hall and joined the others before retiring for the evening.

  The day for Lorriel’s birthday celebration came and people began to arrive.
Meanwhile Lorriel, paced nervously back and forth waiting for the arrival of Andrew Crestlaw. Finally Andrew arrived and Lorriel, watching from the balcony, came rushing down to greet him. When she was finally there, she did not know what to do. She believed Andrew had feelings for her, but that was weeks before. What if something had changed? Those doubts paralyzed her and all the plans she had envisioned at this meeting evaporated in that moment. Andrew, noticing her hesitation, started to say something when Lorriel threw all doubts to the wind and rushed to hug Andrew.

  As he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a generous hug, he whispered in her ear, “It seems these past weeks have gone by too slowly for me, for my heart desired to see you sooner, Princess Lorriel.”

  Lorriel whispered back, “I counted the days as well. I am so glad you are here Andrew.” She knew at that moment that the magic she had felt after being rescued from the falls had not vanished, but had grown stronger for the both of them. And she knew also that now it would never disappear.

  Is this what love is, she wondered, a decision of two hearts deciding they never wanted to be apart. Father and mother must have shared something such as this. Oh, how she wished her mother was still here to talk to her of such things. She wanted to talk to someone and decided that later she would speak to Raven, to see how he viewed the situation and her feelings. She knew that there were also courtship procedures to follow and the granting of the permission of the king for Andrew to officially court her. She would petition the king after the celebration for such a royal blessing, but now it was enough to have Andrew’s company for her birthday celebration.

  As Lorriel took Andrew’s hand to lead him into the celebration, he said, “Wait, I have something for you.” He produced a finely wrapped box about an inch thick and six inches square. “I know,” Andrew went on, “that the wealth of the kingdom is yours, and the pearls you are wearing complement your beauty and position. I wanted to give you something unique, that spoke of me and my heart’s desire toward you.”